


love keeps us kind

by stardustsx



Series: Love Keeps Us Kind universe [1]
Category: Linkin Park
Genre: Angst, Angsty a bit later, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Multi, alternative universe, fluff too, idk - Freeform, just a lot of bands and a lot of things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2019-12-26 07:57:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18279050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustsx/pseuds/stardustsx
Summary: "In a few years we'll play on full stadiums, we'll play on Warped, we'll be making our dreams come true and it will be fantastic! (...)""We need to come back to exercising. We need to show them, who rocks here!"so it's fanfiction about making dreams come true and a road to the top, with a bit of linkin park in the backgroundCAN CONTAIN SWEAR WORDS AND TRIGGERING THINGS. NOTHING MORE ADULTIER.





	1. 1. "but I know I've got one thing to do"

**Author's Note:**

> so yeah. it's up on wattpad and now on ao3 too. yeah, i'm the same person. yay.

"Susie! Suuusieee! You lazy person! Ugh, get up. Hey, today you honestly sleep more than  _my_ dad, and it's something!"

I groaned. I turned out on my second half of my body and covered my ears with a pillow.

"Oh no, my dear, we're not playing this today. You have to get up. In half an hour we have a rehearsal at Tati's, and she live more than ten minutes from you in car."

"Go fuck yourself, Delson, I don't want to", I mumbled.

And in the next second I was on the floor, thrown off the bed by, as always lovely, Natasha Delson. Mumbling curse words under my breath, I got up and smacked her in head. She handed me some clothes and pointed on the bathroom. I rolled my eyes, but I went to the room.

"Remember that we also have a talk about the contract, so you won't escape from me. Well, only if you prefer to die from Tati's hands. If yes, you don't even need to go", her mouth wouldn't stop.

Being already in bathroom, I looked at the clothes Tash gave me. Underwear, jeans, black shirt and green-black flannel.

"Natasha, why are you trying to make me your copy?!" I shouted to her. SH laughed loudly.

"Don't complain, just wear it!"

I sighed. That's her, that's Natasha Delson. So, wanting it or not, I had to do it.

_********** _

"Why, just why were you late  _again_?!", shouted Tatiana. "It's third time this week and it's freaking Friday! For God's sake, how?!"

"Natasha was also late", I mumbled.

"Hey, don't get me involved. Actually, I was the  _first_  to be here and when I understood that you'd be late  _again_ , I went to you as fast as possible!", Delson protested.

"Susanne Bennington, I need answers." Tati focused on me again. For a moment I thought that she would hit me with a drumstick or would break a snare on my head... and it hurts. A little?

Okay. It hurts bloody much.

"Okay, I overslept! It's nothing strange!", I slowly backed off. She was looking at me with a face that was a mixture of a big madness, disappointment and the very last amount of patience. After some seconds more, she put her hands down and sighed.

"Don't say anything more. Go catch your guitar and jump to the microphone. And  _don't talk to me_  in the next couple hours, with an exception for talking about music."

To not angry her more, I did it. An angry Tatiana is a scary Tatiana. That's the truth.

"So what,  _Painting_  first?", asked, for the first time this day, Ines.

Oh, by the way, a word to start it all. The girls and I have a band. We're called  _Reflection of the Night._  It's four of us. Me, Susie Bennington, became a vocalist, and I was kind of forced to become a rhythm guitarist. Tati Williams, our lovely blondie, took the drummer stool. Ines Kowalski, only European in our group, took the bass and Tashie Delson (I swear, this surname speaks more than a thousand words by itself) expropriated to her being a main guitarist.

Ines started the song and after some seconds, kicks in the bass drum were added. Guitars showed up later, during the chorus, so it was okay.

" _Alone in the dark, screaming from the heart...",_  I started singing after some seconds of intro. I felt Natasha's eyes on me, she waited until I start the chorus, I was sure about that.

" _So paint it, _just paint it, let it all come to light, the truth, the lies, and all the great times.__ " Lyrics just got out of my mouth. I caught the good chord and I started playing, just like Delson did. I looked at her, but soon after returned to singing.

"  _A little stupid kid, you wish you were dead, but there's nowhere to hide and nowhere to live._ " I ended. The melody lasted for some seconds more. When we ended, Tati sighed.

"There's a weird noise. Something's not right with the low sounds. My bass drum and floor tom are okay, so it must be with your bass, Ines. Can you play your part? The one from the bridge", she asked. The bassist did it. It took some seconds, but soon it was all silent again.

"I hear it too", mumbled Kowalski. "I tuned it literally this morning, so I don't know where it came from... wait." She looked at Natasha. Delson bit her lip. A little, but still. And it could mean only one thing...

"You were combining with  _my_  bass and made it sound like crap."

"Why, when something goes wrong, it's always my fault?", Tash groaned. "It's not my fault!"

"Yhm, yes, of course", hissed Ines.

"But really...!"

"Just repair this and that's all, nothing else. We have to rehearse it all", I said. "We've got a show tomorrow. We can't just skip it, we have to show up. We gave out around a hundred tickets!"

" _If_  anyone comes to it", mumbled Delson. She crossed her arms.

She had a point. At this moment we almost always gave out around the same amount of tickets, yet hardly anyone was coming. At our last how there were eight people. Natasha took it the hardest.

"Remember, there is  _no way_  that nobody will show up! Linkins promised, our families also, probably some people from school!", shouted Ines, her voice full of enthusiasm.

"And in a few years we'll play on full stadiums, we'll play on Warped, we'll be making our dreams come true and it will be fantastic!", laughed Tatiana.

"Group hug!", I put guitar back and brought the girls closer to me. We always did it, at every rehearse sooner or later we hugged. It was our tradition. It just showed up by itself.

"Okay, girls." Tash backed off first. "We need to come back to exercising. We need to show them, who rocks here!"


	2. 2. "they say she plays guitar and cries and sings"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "In a few years we'll play on full stadiums, we'll play on Warped, we'll be making our dreams come true and it will be fantastic! (...)"  
> "We need to come back to exercising. We need to show them, who rocks here!"
> 
> so it's fanfiction about making dreams come true and a road to the top, with a bit of linkin park in the background
> 
> CAN CONTAIN SWEAR WORDS AND TRIGGERING THINGS. NOTHING MORE ADULTIER.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so like, I really like this chapter
> 
> girls are at it again  
> they play  
> they work
> 
> they're just themselves

"No, no, no. Susie, try to play it in  _C,_ not  _e,_  okay?" Natasha said, furrowing her eyebrows. I did as she said. I had to admit, it sounded better.

"We should get ready to go", Tati suggested, taking a step into the garage. She was holding bottles of water. She threw one to me, I caught it.

"We have, like, forty minutes at maximum to get our asses up and drive there. It's 12 PM, and we've gotta be there at 2 PM.

"I don't want to", mumbled Ines. "We have to?" She threw her hands into the air, trying to wake up.

"Yes, we have to", answered drummer with a sigh. "It's literally just  _Hopeless_  and  _Fueled by Ramen_. Well, we also can get to  _Warner Bros._  Then we have three chances.

I put the guitar on the stand. It was too little time for me to get to my house and change clothes.

"I'm ready, so", I mumbled.

"Give me five minutes, I got to go to the toilet", stated Tashy, immediately running to the room. Tati shook her head, not believing.

"I have a minute to play! Yaaay!", muttered Ines. She didn't move for even a centimeter.

To be honest, her attitude wasn't surprising for me. It was like, 5 industries that rejected us? Getting the contract was harder than we all thought. We tried for a year, but nobody wanted us. Natasha still was in high school, the last year, but still, it was four of us, all girls. And, no, the fact, that I was a daughter of Chester Bennington and Natasha was the daughter of Brad Delson wasn't helping. It was kind of making it all harder. We were expected to be even better from them, to do another  _Hybrid Theory_. Like we were just their copies.

And the truth was that we played music almost  _completely_  different from theirs. Mainly pop punk, maybe a few older rock sounds, a total mix of it. Not even a bit of hip-hop and similar.

Yeah. It kinda sucked.

"I'm betting 10 dollars, that  _Hopeless_  won't want us", spoke Ines.

"I'm betting 20 dollars, that we'll do it", said Natasha, coming back to us. "It has to be this time. It has to."

"You really believe in that?", I sighed.

"You remember how many times oldies were trying? We also have to do this. Also, tomorrow we have a show. It will succeed. It has to, it just has to." Natasha was repeating stubbornly. Williams nudged her lightly.

"Shut up. We have half an hour to go out. If anyone wants to do something, do it now and do it fast", reminded blonde girl.

"Fuck you, Williams."

"I love you too, Delson, and now, fast. The ride itself is, like, 40 minutes."

*******

"Do you have something recorded, on which we can see what you have to offer?", asked woman with a bored voice. Tati handed her a CD.

"Here are four songs, we decided that they're the best..." said carefully Natasha.

"It should be enough for us this time", interrupted her the woman. "Thank you for your interest in  _Hopeless Records_ , we will give you our decision in the next month.

Her face was saying two things.  _You have no chances_  and  _you better go from here_.

"Thank you for considering our band", I mumbled and got up from the chair. Girls did it right after me. Some seconds later we were going straight to the building's exit.

"She was completely weird! She showed us no interest and that she probably hates doing this!", shouted Ines when we were outside. I looked at Tati, her hands were shaking.

"I will drive", I said fast and, not giving them chances, just went to Tatiana's car, opened it and sat behind the wheel. Natasha without a word sat in the back, Williams by her side. Ines at the front passenger seat.

"Lack of any interest. It hurts. A lot", sighed Tashy after some minutes. "We got  _Fueled by Ramen_  now. And  _Warner Bros_. We are completely losing it.

Next minutes of the driving were in complete silence. I was driving to a road that lead out of Los Angeles. We needed some time. Our time.

*******

 

It was predictable. The answer from  _Hopeless_ came after three days.

We didn't get the contract.

At least the show was kind of okay. There were around fifty people. Ignoring the fact that we gave out/sold around a hundred more, it was almost perfect. We played everything nice, it was just okay.

We were sitting, the four of us, in Ines's room, looking at our last burned CD. Our last chance.

"If... if this doesn't work this time..." Natasha started talking with a shy, quiet voice. "We won't stop, right? We won't let this just... disappear? We won't let this happen, right?

"I don't know, Tashy", sighed Tatiana. "Maybe...", she hesitated. "We play together for around seven years. Maybe we need... a little break from it?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, scowling.

"Temporary... or not... break up the band?" she answered.

After a short while, Natasha laughed nervously.

"To destroy our band? Williams, you're going crazy, right?", she asked with a shaky voice.

Williams and I knew each other since fourth grade. A year after meeting Ines (so in 2008) we started playing in four. The band was officially made three years ago. And one-third of this time we were trying to get a contract.

"We would get a bit of rest from this. We could think it all out. I don't know, to think if it has any sense to do this any longer", Tatiana ended. I looked on the floor.

After Tati's words, Delson sprung to her feet.

"I'm sorry, but I need time to myself", she mumbled. After some seconds of staying in one place, she literally ran out of the room. Literally, minute after, when I looked out of the window, I saw her running into the direction of her house.

"You were too harsh. You know how much this means to her", Ines literally whispered.

No one of us said more this time.


	3. 3. "tear it down, break the barricades "

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> well another chapter! I hope that you'll like it!

"Maybe we'll try to release something without a label?", asked Natasha after a long while of silence. I looked at her shortly. She was holding her guitar tight, sitting on a chair. She was serious. I saw this on her face.

"How many bands do you know that made it into a bigger thing without any help from any label?", I sighed.

She lowered her head. Of course.  _None._

"Please, let's think about  _Fueled by Ramen_ ", begged Delson.

"We all need to talk about this one. We two can't make decisions for the whole band", I reminded her. Tash bit her lip, putting away the guitar. She got up from the chair and sat by me, on her bed. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair.

"I've had enough of this, Su. I've had enough of being in this freaking point with no return. I've had enough of being tired with all of this. I've had enough with life, I've had enough of lack of options. I want to do something, I want to get out of this hole. I'd love to be like dad. To be able to explore the whole world, to be able to do something what I love every day. I'd love to create music without any boundaries, for it to be my future job. I... I just don't want to be forgotten...", she whispered, with a little shame in her voice.

I hugged her immediately. Even though we knew each other our whole lives, she wasn't the type of person that liked to talk about her feelings. But Natasha was always like that. As if a joker, as if she was strong, as if anything, but inside... she was always feeling everything harder than anyone I've known. And music... it was just her life, it was everything for her. It couldn't be described any other way. Everyone who knew her, knew that almost everything she cared for was music. Playing it, listening to it, writing it, making it... anything related to it.

"You won't be forgotten, Tashie. You won't. We won't allow it. With the girls we won't allow it", I mumbled to her ear. I was gently streaking her back. I felt that Natasha was shaking.  _She was crying._

And suddenly, after some minutes, she stopped. She stopped crying, she stopped shaking. But she wasn't asleep. She moved a bit to the back and looked at me with red from crying eyes. She braided her hair into two messy braids and took a big breath.

"Let's... let's go to Ines. She told me that her parents left her in her home for her birthday", she told with a little shaking voice. "She probably has something, as always. Please..."

Almost automatically, I messed with her hair. Immediately she started cursing me and telling how much she hates me. I laughed a bit. Our Natashie came back. Our lovely Natashie.

*******

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Ines, happy birthday to you!", howled Tatiana.

We were at a little party, Ines had birthday! She was 17 years old and because of this, her parents let her stay home alone and invite some friends to have a sleepover. So she chose us, lovely. We were sitting in her room, drinking wine found in Mr. and Mrs. Kowalski's alcohol cabinet, watching old animations and howling a lot of different songs.

Normal, little and  _perfectly fine_  party at Ines's. 100% safe.

Suddenly someone ringed to the door, so our lovely host stood up and went to open them. After a short while I recognized three familiar voices — Darla Tachibana, Katia Flyely and Charlotte Rivera.

Darla was a black haired and brown eyed Asian girl, who I met more than three years ago. We both found common ground almost immediately — we listened to similar music, we both played guitar and both were  in school band (I as a lead guitarist, which was weird, and she as a bassist).

Katia, on the other hand, was almost like Darla's completely opposite. She was from Ireland and you could literally summarize her with two words —  _proverbial Irishman._ I mean, red, a bit curly, hair, light green eyes, pale skin and  _a lot of_ freckles. Like,  _a lot._  We knew each other for around four years, but first we hated each other. It changed around a year ago. We ended up in one group during Chemistry and (after burning our bangs and ending at the school nurse) we kind of became friends.

But with the lovely Charlie Rivera... we knew each other literally from the sandbox. We were like sisters and knew for, like, fourteen years or more. At this moment, her hair was cut to her shoulders, in a light, pastel purple color. She always experimented with her looks, since literally always. I remembered her, at our first day in first grade, she came with green ends of hair. I was jealous. She also used brown contact lenses, covering her natural eye colors. She had heterochrony, her one iris was dark green and second was dark blue.

So I was  _extremely_  happy that three girls came into Ines's room. It meant that there'd be a lot more fun night.

*******

It was around three hours later and to be honest we were in the middle of emptying the third bottle of wine. Natasha and Tatiana were hugging to each other and probably singing something. If I drank this half glass of wine less, I would probably notice that Tati's hand was on the outside part of Tashy's  thigh, but as I  _drank_  it to the end (it couldn't go to waste!) I was watching Ines and Charlie arguing about if we should send a mail to  _Fueled by Ramen_. It took around ten minutes or more. And suddenly, as I, I decided to interject.

"I will send them this email myself, but if you  _get_ the contract, I want to be your tour manager", said Rivera. She stood with her hands on her waist, with a fighter face.

"But why should we even send it?", asked Polish girl, gesticulating aggressively. "They will probably reject us anyway!"

"And what if they won't? If you'll get this freaking contract?", Charlie sat and raised her brows.

"Do whatever you want, Charlie", I mumbled. "As you see... whatever", I waved my hand. "For me it's okay. If you write to  _Fueled,_ and we do it, you'll be a tour manager. But if it doesn't work, you owe me one.

"Okay. Give me five minutes", she decided.

And as she said, she done that. After a while she sent and email to  _Fueled by Ramen._  She was smiling broadly whole the time.

And I had one usual question in my head.

_What in the hell am I doing with my life?_


	4. 4. "cause you never put up a real fight"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things happen, things that are fun. yay! that's nicee!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, I don't even _know_ what to tell except that i'm sorry for not updating but yea

When I woke up, I immediately felt headache and – _oh, God_ – my mouth was so _dry_. One of the girls – I haven’t even noticed which one – handed me a glass of water and a painkiller. With a quick look at the clock (it was already 12PM, damn it) I drank the pill and, with closed eyes, waited until it started working. When the relief came, I stood up and looked around.

“You woke up as last,” Charlie told me with a happy tone. I was always jealous of her. She never had a hangover, no matter how much she drank.

“Why are you so happy?” I mumbled, yawning.

"Oh, the response from  _Fueled by Ramen_  came. They want to see you all on 3PM!", she answered, smiling wildly.

For around half a minute I was looking at her in complete shock. If it was truth... I had three hours... and I smelled so bad, I was in yesterday's clothes, looking like a total catastrophe.

"Tati and Tashy went to their homes around an hour ago. Katy and Darly also disappeared. Inesy is getting herself ready and I decided to wake you up", she giggled. "I was going to go for a glass of freezing water, but you woke up in the last second. Unfortunately." She was pretending that she was sad. I rolled my eyes.

"Tell Ines that party was like always, I'm going home", I said. I quickly got to the front doors. I got my shoes on, grabbed my phone and as fast as I was able to, went to my house,

It took me some minutes of quick run — not sprint — until I got to home and when I got into, I literally ran into Tyler. And we both fell down.

"Daaad!", my  _lovely brother_  shouted. "Susie wants to kill me!"

"Susie, don't kill Tyler", dad answered, laughing and helping us to get up. "But, my dear daughter, what was the reason of you running into the house?", he asked, raising his eyebrow.

" _Fueled... by Ramen..._ ", I gasped, trying to catch air. "We sent a mail yesterday... and they want to see us today at 3PM... and I'm looking like complete shit..."

"Susie talks bad!", complained Ty, pausing me. I weakly kicked him, for dad to not see and for him to not hurt too much.

"And I have to get ready, so, sorry! I don't have time!" As fast as I could, I got to my room. I started to look into my closet. I found some a bit elegant, but not too elegant clothes (so black jeans and silvery shirt), I took some underwear and  _ran_  to the toilet.

After around forty minutes I was ready, clean and everything. I quickly put some makeup on (to cover some pimples and dark circles under eyes). So, adding, everything took me around one hour.

It all left me with a bit more than an hour of time left.  _I. Was. Stressed. As. Hell._  But I went to the living room with a calm step. I sat down and grabbed one pillow. 

I literally screamed into this pillow. Well, I had to let this stress out.

"Su, don't kill the pillows!", dad shouted to me. After a short while, I felt that somebody sat right next to me. I was pretty sure that it was him.

"Go away", I mumbled with a grave voice. "Bye."

"Not until you explain to me, what is so scary for you in this talk?", he answered. I groaned and looked at dad. Well, I had to answer because he wouldn't let me out if I didn't.

"What if they'll reject us too? We would have to try at  _Warner Bros_ , but you've got a contract with them, so it'll look like some kind of... you know", I mumbled.

"Susanne Zoe Bennington", he started talking almost immediately, trying hard to sound serious. "You, Natasha, Ines and Tatiana are  _very_  ambitious. I'd even say that more than us these... I think, seventeen years ago? Also, I believe in you! This time, you've got to do it."

I hugged dad firmly. He always knew what to say to make me (or anyone) feel better.

It wasn't even five minutes and Lily with Lila were running to us. Both in dresses, both climbed on the couch and joined our hug.

I loved my family. I loved them so, so much.

This nice moment was interrupted by a sound of doorbell and the doors being opened immediately. Only two people were doing that. Brad and Natasha.

"Good morning, the Benningtons!", Tash shouted. I looked at her, she was smiling broadly. I rolled my eyes, but also smiled. "I came to steal this weird creature, who probably wants to disappear, from you. Ines and Tati are out, we're driving to  _Fueled by Ramen_!

"I have to go with her", I mumbled. Somehow I untangled myself from the hug and went to grab mu purse. When I came back, I saw that Natasha and Tyler were talking, so they probably were trying to do some prank or something like that. But when Tashie saw me, she quickly grabbed my hand, and we got out of the house. There was Tati's car in front of it.

I was forced to sit in the back. I got my belts and when Tash did the same, Tati immediately started the car. To the building, where out talk was supposed to be, we got in around half an hour,  _very_  fast as for this distance and this hour. It took us another minutes to go into it and wait until we were called to the office.

I was a bit shocked, when I saw the inside. But I was more shocked by the person, the man with who we were supposed to talk. He was wearing black jeans, some shirt in the same color and red flannel.

"Oh, so you're  _Reflection Of The Night_? Nice to meet you, I'm Aidan Perry", he introduced himself. Girls smoothly pushed me to the front, so I shook his hand.

"Sit, sit down." He showed us some chairs, so we quickly did it. He sat behind the desk and was looking at us.

"So... we'd like to..." Natasha tried to start something, but she couldn't.

"I know who you are and I know what led you here. Really, it's nothing new for me", he joked. "Just let's get to business. You showed us your material as an attachment, so we kind of know what to expect after your band. Some other people and I were talking about it in the morning, we also listened to your music."

"Excuse me, but what does it mean to us?", blurted Ines. Probably every one of us had something similar in head, but only she could form any words.

"It means that, after a discussion, we decided that the best thing we can do is to offer you a contract", he said with a twinkle with his eye.

I literally couldn't hold my mouth shut. I looked at the girls. Tati, with a shock on her face, closed my mouth. I wasn't expecting that at all. It was our last chance... and it worked... it could work!

"But, what are you offering us? What this contract offers?", Natasha quickly asked.

"You're making at least four albums or are with us at least 10 years. We're helping you with promoting the albums and these things, we're covering the costs of making the album and making the music videos. But, 30% of money from the album goes to us. Rest is for you. Besides that, do what you want", he ended talking and smiled to us.

The girls and I exchanged looks. We were friends for so long, we could understand each other without words. 

After some hours, screaming and laughing like we were mad, we ran into the Delsons's house.

_We got a contract. We would publish an album_.


End file.
